Just submitted Common APP...Question about SAT IIs

Applying to College
1

<p>Hey all, these are my stats --</p>

<p>Objective:</p>

<p>UW GPA: 3.88/4.0
Rank: No rank but top 5%</p>

<p>SAT I: </p>

<p>January 25th 2014 SAT: 750 WR w/ 9 essay, 760 CR, 600 MATH --> 2110
October 11th, 2014 SAT: 730 WR w/11 essay, 800 CR, 720 MATH --> 2250</p>

<p>Superscore: 750 WR, 800 CR, 720 MATH --> 2270</p>

<p>SAT IIs:</p>

<p>World History: 700
Mandarin w/ Listening: 800
Literature: will be tking in November</p>

<p>AP (all self-study): European History (5), World History (5), Comp Gov (5), Human Geo (5), Psychology (4)</p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>Academic Awards:</p>

<p>Grade 9 French Excellence Award, School
Grade 10 Student of the Month, School
Grade 9, 10, 11 Leadership Award, School
Grade 10, 11, 12 Principal's Honor Roll, School
National AP Scholar (Canada), National</p>

<p>I really don't know if I will be able to do well in SAT Lit...is it ok if I just don't take it? How much would it affect me? I am a Canadian-born Asian kid, and did have to go through Mandarin school to learn to speak Chinese. I'm applying as an IR major, and there just aren't too many options for SAT IIs...the only other thing I could've taken was SAT II US History.</p>

<p>Any insight? Advice?</p>

2

<p>if your school only requires 2, then it doesn’t really matter whether you take Lit or not. Of course, if you reported it already… they may be waiting on a score. Contact admissions and see what they have to say</p>

3

<p>Sigh I reported already. Does anyone have any other advice? Would it look bad if I only took world and Chinese?</p>

4

<p>Why not take math? Math 2 includes trig, math 1 just algebra/geometry. Your sat 1 math suggests your knowledge base is strong enough.</p>

5

<p>@VSGPeanut101‌ Unfortunately, my math is absolutely terrible. I did over twenty practice tests, Barron’s work book, and Dr Chung’s just to get 720 (I was so shocked and happy when I saw it). I definitely wouldn’t be able to handle Math 2.</p>

6

<p>Since you reported it, I would go ahead and take the lit. If the college only requires 2 scores, they’ll simply take your 2 best; you’ve really nothing to lose.</p>

7

<p>@skieurope I think you’re right. I’ll just take both and see how it goes!</p>

8

<p>Hmm, but if I do take Lit and say, get 680 on it, won’t it look really bad? Even if they only consider the first two?</p>

9

<p>Take the lit! Your CR score suggests you will do well. My son also had an 800 CR score, looked over the lit practice book a few nights before the test, and scored a 760. We’ve heard from other people that their CR score was also predictive of a good score on the lit test.</p>

10

<p>@‌Massmomm Wow - congrats on your son’s 760! I’ve been reading 17th-19th century poetry, but I’m just not really getting the hang of it. I will take Lit, but I’m just scared what Penn will think of my Lit score if it’s low :frowning: </p>

<p>Plus, I already have a pretty low World History score. </p>

11

<p>

That comment is both off-putting and disingenuous. A 700 is a good score. You need to keep in mind that the students who take a subject test in a particular subject are a self-selecting group. With 18,000 test-takers a year, World History has the fewest number of students sitting for the exam (excluding foreign language).</p>

<p>That said, getting a 750 instead of a 700 won’t be the deciding factor in your acceptance or rejection. Neither will an 800 or a 600. There are no strict cut offs, so don’t spend time overanalyzing. If the rest of your application is strong, then you have nothing to worry about. </p>

12

<p>@skieurope Thanks so much for the advice! I feel a lot better now. It’s just that recently a lot of people have been telling me that the biggest detriment in my application are my SAT IIs, so I’ve been freaking out a bit!</p>

13

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<p>I just wanted to comment on this-- that isn’t the best way to prep, not by a long shot.
Remember, good poems and other literary pieces tend to have multiple different (valid) meanings and interpretations-- that’s the beauty of literature!</p>

<p>But, the SAT Lit test DOES NOT allow for that. Because the test is multiple-choice, only one interpretation will be valid for any given literary piece. When prepping for the test, I found that practicing with practice tests was far more effective because it taught me how to predict the ‘test’s interpretation’ of the literary pieces and therefore choose the correct answers. I think that doing well on the Lit test is just an exercise in predicting the memorandum and thereby ‘gaming the system’, not actually knowing or understanding literature. </p>

<p>Reading 17th-19th century poetry may correlate with a higher score, but I doubt that the correlation would be strong enough to justify the time spent.</p>

<p>I recommend the Kaplan book-- 8 practice tests.
Just my 0.2</p>

14

<p>@Bemusedfyz‌ thanks for the great advice! At this point, I’m not even sure if the Lit test can be studied for…I’ve done all the Barron’s, princetons, and Kaplan tests and my scores waver around a 690-730. Which means I will probably score lower on the real test.</p>

<p>Did Kaplans accurately predict your score?</p>

15

<p>I found that Kaplan was relatively accurate-- my score on test day was 20 points higher than my last practice test.</p>

<p>I’m assuming that you’ve read this thread?</p>

<p><a href=“How to Ace Literature - SAT Subject Test Preparation - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-subject-tests-preparation/585615-how-to-ace-literature-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>This^ really is the secret to the test-- figure out how to make the advice work for you.
Anything specific that you’re struggling with?</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>